Kev writes:

As for our home, I'll always keep regular phone service and an old
Princess phone to connect with. It's amazing how many of our
neighbors have cable phones and lose all comms during power (or just
cable) outages. During the big blackout, even cell towers ran out of
juice. And even those with a regular phone, often only have cordless
phones which won't work without power!

Note that both systems depend on electricity, it's just that the telephone
company has different notions of "reliable service" than the cable company.

I used to have cable outages several times a week, and even today, cable
service is often very unreliable. In contrast, the U.S. telephone system was
designed for 2 hours of downtime in _40 years_, and it actually achieves this.
Both systems use similar technology, but the management philosophies are very
different.

This is one reason why I have ADSL through my telephone company, instead of a
cable modem or broadband through a non-telecom provider. The telephone system
is always up and running.

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